Client forwarding policies for zero trust access for applications

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods include providing a user interface to an administrator associated with a tenant of a cloud-based system, wherein the tenant has a plurality of users each having an associated user device; receiving a plurality of client forwarding policies for the plurality of users, wherein each client forwarding policy of the client forwarding policies define rules related to how application requests from the plurality of users are forwarded for zero trust access; and providing the rules to corresponding user devices of the plurality of users.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION(S)

The present patent application/patent is a continuation-in-part of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 16/858,798, filed Apr. 27, 2020, andentitled “Use of DHCP for location information of a user device forautomatic traffic forwarding,” the contents of each are incorporated byreference herein in their entirety.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

The present disclosure relates generally to networking and computing.More particularly, the present disclosure relates to systems and methodsfor client forwarding policies for zero trust access for applications.

BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE

The traditional view of an enterprise network (i.e., corporate, private,etc.) included a well-defined perimeter defended by various appliances(e.g., firewalls, intrusion prevention, advanced threat detection,etc.). In this traditional view, mobile users utilize a Virtual PrivateNetwork (VPN), etc. and have their traffic backhauled into thewell-defined perimeter. This worked when mobile users represented asmall fraction of the users, i.e., most users were within thewell-defined perimeter. However, this is no longer the case—thedefinition of the workplace is no longer confined to within thewell-defined perimeter, and with applications moving to the cloud, theperimeter has extended to the Internet. This results in an increasedrisk for the enterprise data residing on unsecured and unmanaged devicesas well as the security risks in access to the Internet. Cloud-basedsecurity solutions have emerged, such as Zscaler Internet Access (ZIA)and Zscaler Private Access (ZPA), available from Zscaler, Inc., theapplicant and assignee of the present application.

ZPA is a cloud service that provides seamless, zero trust access toprivate applications running on the public cloud, within the datacenter, within an enterprise network, etc. As described herein, ZPA isreferred to as zero trust access to private applications or simply azero trust access service. Here, applications are never exposed to theInternet, making them completely invisible to unauthorized users. Theservice enables the applications to connect to users via inside-outconnectivity versus extending the network to them. Users are neverplaced on the network. This Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) approachsupports both managed and unmanaged devices and any private application(not just web apps).

An aspect of this zero trust access service is a need to install clientforwarding policies on user devices. Disadvantageously, there can be alarge amount of data for the client forwarding policies, making itimpractical to install all of the possible client forwarding policies ona user device. Further, the concept of zero trust recognizes the goal oflimiting information sharing where it is not necessary, i.e., whyinstall client forwarding policies that are not required.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

The present disclosure relates to systems and methods for clientforwarding policies for zero trust access for applications. A zero trustaccess service operates between a cloud-based system, user devices, andapplications. The client forwarding policies define the forwarding oftraffic in the zero trust access service between the user devices andthe applications via the cloud-based system. The present disclosureincludes selective download/installation of client forwarding policieson a given user device based on associated access privileges, authorizedapplications, etc., for a user of the user device. Advantageously, thisselective download/installation of client forwarding policies provideincreased security, such as preventing a Domain Name System (DNS) leak,supports the zero trust access of application at remote locations whilelocal application access is bypassed, and enables the use of zero trustaccess of a trusted network.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present disclosure is illustrated and described herein withreference to the various drawings, in which like reference numbers areused to denote like system components/method steps, as appropriate, andin which:

FIG. 1 is a network diagram of a cloud-based system offering security asa service;

FIG. 2 is a network diagram of an example implementation of thecloud-based system;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a server that may be used in thecloud-based system of FIGS. 1 and 2 or the like;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a user device that may be used with thecloud-based system of FIGS. 1 and 2 or the like;

FIG. 5 is a network diagram of the cloud-based system illustrating anapplication on user devices with users configured to operate through thecloud-based system;

FIG. 6 is a network diagram of a Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA)application utilizing the cloud-based system of FIGS. 1 and 2;

FIG. 7 is a network diagram of a connector application and associatedconnectivity and functionality with the cloud-based system;

FIG. 8 is a network diagram of example workflow of the connectorapplication;

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram of an event sequence associated with theconnector application;

FIG. 10 is a logical diagram of functional components of the connectorapplication;

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of a proxy authentication process to thecloud-based system;

FIG. 12 is a flowchart of a VPN authentication process to thecloud-based system;

FIG. 13 is a flowchart of a device enrollment process for the clientuser device and the connector application;

FIG. 14 is a flowchart of a traffic interception process implementedthrough the connector application;

FIG. 15 is a flow diagram of traffic interception and splitting usingthe connector application;

FIG. 16 is a flow diagram of tunnel forwarding rules by the connectorapplication;

FIG. 17 is a flowchart of a service drive split tunneling process;

FIG. 18 is a network diagram of a network illustrating the user devicewith the connector application automatically detecting a location ornetwork type and instantiating the proper traffic forwarding behaviorbased thereon;

FIG. 19 is a flowchart of a process for the use of DHCP for locationinformation of a user device for automatic traffic forwarding;

FIG. 20 is screenshots of UI screens for selecting/defining trustednetworks;

FIG. 21 is a flowchart of a process for cloud policy enforcement basedon network trust;

FIG. 22 is a flowchart of a process for cloud policy enforcement basedon network trust;

FIG. 23 is a screenshot of a client forwarding policy UI;

FIG. 24 is a screenshot of editing a particular client forwardingpolicy; and

FIG. 25 is a flowchart of a client forwarding policy process.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DISCLOSURE

Again, the present disclosure relates to systems and methods for clientforwarding policies for zero trust access for applications. A zero trustaccess service operates between a cloud-based system, user devices, andapplications. The client forwarding policies define the forwarding oftraffic in the zero trust access service between the user devices andthe applications via the cloud-based system. The present disclosureincludes selective download/installation of client forwarding policieson a given user device based on associated access privileges, authorizedapplications, etc., for a user of the user device. Advantageously, thisselective download/installation of client forwarding policies provideincreased security, such as preventing a Domain Name System (DNS) leak,supports the zero trust access of application at remote locations whilelocal application access is bypassed, and enables the use of zero trustaccess of a trusted network.

Example Cloud-Based System Architecture

FIG. 1 is a network diagram of a cloud-based system 100 offeringsecurity as a service. Specifically, the cloud-based system 100 canoffer a Secure Internet and Web Gateway as a service to various users102, as well as other cloud services. In this manner, the cloud-basedsystem 100 is located between the users 102 and the Internet as well asany cloud services 106 (or applications) accessed by the users 102. Assuch, the cloud-based system 100 provides inline monitoring inspectingtraffic between the users 102, the Internet 104, and the cloud services106, including Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) traffic. The cloud-basedsystem 100 can offer access control, threat prevention, data protection,etc. The access control can include a cloud-based firewall, cloud-basedintrusion detection, Uniform Resource Locator (URL) filtering, bandwidthcontrol, Domain Name System (DNS) filtering, etc. The threat preventioncan include cloud-based intrusion prevention, protection againstadvanced threats (malware, spam, Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), phishing,etc.), cloud-based sandbox, antivirus, DNS security, etc. The dataprotection can include Data Loss Prevention (DLP), cloud applicationsecurity such as via Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB), file typecontrol, etc.

The cloud-based firewall can provide Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) andaccess controls across various ports and protocols as well as beingapplication and user aware. The URL filtering can block, allow, or limitwebsite access based on policy for a user, group of users, or entireorganization, including specific destinations or categories of URLs(e.g., gambling, social media, etc.). The bandwidth control can enforcebandwidth policies and prioritize critical applications such as relativeto recreational traffic. DNS filtering can control and block DNSrequests against known and malicious destinations.

The cloud-based intrusion prevention and advanced threat protection candeliver full threat protection against malicious content such as browserexploits, scripts, identified botnets and malware callbacks, etc. Thecloud-based sandbox can block zero-day exploits (just identified) byanalyzing unknown files for malicious behavior. Advantageously, thecloud-based system 100 is multi-tenant and can service a large volume ofthe users 102. As such, newly discovered threats can be promulgatedthroughout the cloud-based system 100 for all tenants practicallyinstantaneously. The antivirus protection can include antivirus,antispyware, antimalware, etc. protection for the users 102, usingsignatures sourced and constantly updated. The DNS security can identifyand route command-and-control connections to threat detection enginesfor full content inspection.

The DLP can use standard and/or custom dictionaries to continuouslymonitor the users 102, including compressed and/or SSL-encryptedtraffic. Again, being in a cloud implementation, the cloud-based system100 can scale this monitoring with near-zero latency on the users 102.The cloud application security can include CASB functionality todiscover and control user access to known and unknown cloud services106. The file type controls enable true file type control by the user,location, destination, etc. to determine which files are allowed or not.

For illustration purposes, the users 102 of the cloud-based system 100can include a mobile device 110, a headquarters (HQ) 112 which caninclude or connect to a data center (DC) 114, Internet of Things (IoT)devices 116, a branch office/remote location 118, etc., and eachincludes one or more user devices (an example user device 300 isillustrated in FIG. 3). The devices 110, 116, and the locations 112,114, 118 are shown for illustrative purposes, and those skilled in theart will recognize there are various access scenarios and other users102 for the cloud-based system 100, all of which are contemplatedherein. The users 102 can be associated with a tenant, which may includean enterprise, a corporation, an organization, etc. That is, a tenant isa group of users who share a common access with specific privileges tothe cloud-based system 100, a cloud service, etc. In an embodiment, theheadquarters 112 can include an enterprise's network with resources inthe data center 114. The mobile device 110 can be a so-called roadwarrior, i.e., users that are off-site, on-the-road, etc. Those skilledin the art will recognize a user 102 has to use a corresponding userdevice 300 for accessing the cloud-based system 100, and the descriptionherein may use the user 102 and/or the user device 300 interchangeably.

Further, the cloud-based system 100 can be multi-tenant, with eachtenant having its own users 102 and configuration, policy, rules, etc.One advantage of the multi-tenancy and a large volume of users is thezero-day/zero-hour protection in that a new vulnerability can bedetected and then instantly remediated across the entire cloud-basedsystem 100. The same applies to policy, rule, configuration, etc.changes—they are instantly remediated across the entire cloud-basedsystem 100. As well, new features in the cloud-based system 100 can alsobe rolled up simultaneously across the user base, as opposed toselective and time-consuming upgrades on every device at the locations112, 114, 118, and the devices 110, 116.

Logically, the cloud-based system 100 can be viewed as an overlaynetwork between users (at the locations 112, 114, 118, and the devices110, 116) and the Internet 104 and the cloud services 106. Previously,the IT deployment model included enterprise resources and applicationsstored within the data center 114 (i.e., physical devices) behind afirewall (perimeter), accessible by employees, partners, contractors,etc. on-site or remote via Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), etc. Thecloud-based system 100 is replacing the conventional deployment model.The cloud-based system 100 can be used to implement these services inthe cloud without requiring the physical devices and management thereofby enterprise IT administrators. As an ever-present overlay network, thecloud-based system 100 can provide the same functions as the physicaldevices and/or appliances regardless of geography or location of theusers 102, as well as independent of platform, operating system, networkaccess technique, network access provider, etc.

There are various techniques to forward traffic between the users 102 atthe locations 112, 114, 118, and via the devices 110, 116, and thecloud-based system 100. Typically, the locations 112, 114, 118 can usetunneling where all traffic is forward through the cloud-based system100. For example, various tunneling protocols are contemplated, such asGeneric Routing Encapsulation (GRE), Layer Two Tunneling Protocol(L2TP), Internet Protocol (IP) Security (IPsec), customized tunnelingprotocols, etc. The devices 110, 116, when not at one of the locations112, 114, 118 can use a local application that forwards traffic, a proxysuch as via a Proxy Auto-Config (PAC) file, and the like. An applicationof the local application is the application 350 described in detailherein as a connector application. A key aspect of the cloud-basedsystem 100 is all traffic between the users 102 and the Internet 104 orthe cloud services 106 is via the cloud-based system 100. As such, thecloud-based system 100 has visibility to enable various functions, allof which are performed off the user device in the cloud.

The cloud-based system 100 can also include a management system 120 fortenant access to provide global policy and configuration as well asreal-time analytics. This enables IT administrators to have a unifiedview of user activity, threat intelligence, application usage, etc. Forexample, IT administrators can drill-down to a per-user level tounderstand events and correlate threats, to identify compromiseddevices, to have application visibility, and the like. The cloud-basedsystem 100 can further include connectivity to an Identity Provider(IDP) 122 for authentication of the users 102 and to a SecurityInformation and Event Management (SIEM) system 124 for event logging.The system 124 can provide alert and activity logs on a per-user 102basis.

FIG. 2 is a network diagram of an example implementation of thecloud-based system 100. In an embodiment, the cloud-based system 100includes a plurality of enforcement nodes (EN) 150, labeled asenforcement nodes 150-1, 150-2, 150-N, interconnected to one another andinterconnected to a central authority (CA) 152. The nodes 150, 152,while described as nodes, can include one or more servers, includingphysical servers, virtual machines (VM) executed on physical hardware,etc. An example of a server is illustrated in FIG. 2. The cloud-basedsystem 100 further includes a log router 154 that connects to a storagecluster 156 for supporting log maintenance from the enforcement nodes150. The central authority 152 provide centralized policy, real-timethreat updates, etc. and coordinates the distribution of this databetween the enforcement nodes 150. The enforcement nodes 150 provide anonramp to the users 102 and are configured to execute policy, based onthe central authority 152, for each user 102. The enforcement nodes 150can be geographically distributed, and the policy for each user 102follows that user 102 as he or she connects to the nearest (or othercriteria) enforcement node 150. Of note, the cloud-based system is anexternal system meaning it is separate from tenant's private networks(enterprise networks) as well as from networks associated with thedevices 110, 116, and locations 112, 118.

The enforcement nodes 150 are full-featured secure internet gatewaysthat provide integrated internet security. They inspect all web trafficbi-directionally for malware and enforce security, compliance, andfirewall policies, as described herein, as well as various additionalfunctionality. In an embodiment, each enforcement node 150 has two mainmodules for inspecting traffic and applying policies: a web module and afirewall module. The enforcement nodes 150 are deployed around the worldand can handle hundreds of thousands of concurrent users with millionsof concurrent sessions. Because of this, regardless of where the users102 are, they can access the Internet 104 from any device, and theenforcement nodes 150 protect the traffic and apply corporate policies.The enforcement nodes 150 can implement various inspection enginestherein, and optionally, send sandboxing to another system. Theenforcement nodes 150 include significant fault tolerance capabilities,such as deployment in active-active mode to ensure availability andredundancy as well as continuous monitoring.

In an embodiment, customer traffic is not passed to any other componentwithin the cloud-based system 100, and the enforcement nodes 150 can beconfigured never to store any data to disk. Packet data is held inmemory for inspection and then, based on policy, is either forwarded ordropped. Log data generated for every transaction is compressed,tokenized, and exported over secure TLS connections to the log routers154 that direct the logs to the storage cluster 156, hosted in theappropriate geographical region, for each organization. In anembodiment, all data destined for or received from the Internet isprocessed through one of the enforcement nodes 150. In anotherembodiment, specific data specified by each tenant, e.g., only email,only executable files, etc., is processed through one of the enforcementnodes 150.

Each of the enforcement nodes 150 may generate a decision vector D=[d1,d2, . . . , dn] for a content item of one or more parts C=[c1, c2, . . ., cm]. Each decision vector may identify a threat classification, e.g.,clean, spyware, malware, undesirable content, innocuous, spam email,unknown, etc. For example, the output of each element of the decisionvector D may be based on the output of one or more data inspectionengines. In an embodiment, the threat classification may be reduced to asubset of categories, e.g., violating, non-violating, neutral, unknown.Based on the subset classification, the enforcement node 150 may allowthe distribution of the content item, preclude distribution of thecontent item, allow distribution of the content item after a cleaningprocess, or perform threat detection on the content item. In anembodiment, the actions taken by one of the enforcement nodes 150 may bedeterminative on the threat classification of the content item and on asecurity policy of the tenant to which the content item is being sentfrom or from which the content item is being requested by. A contentitem is violating if, for any part C=[c1, c2, . . . , cm] of the contentitem, at any of the enforcement nodes 150, any one of the datainspection engines generates an output that results in a classificationof “violating.”

The central authority 152 hosts all customer (tenant) policy andconfiguration settings. It monitors the cloud and provides a centrallocation for software and database updates and threat intelligence.Given the multi-tenant architecture, the central authority 152 isredundant and backed up in multiple different data centers. Theenforcement nodes 150 establish persistent connections to the centralauthority 152 to download all policy configurations. When a new userconnects to an enforcement node 150, a policy request is sent to thecentral authority 152 through this connection. The central authority 152then calculates the policies that apply to that user 102 and sends thepolicy to the enforcement node 150 as a highly compressed bitmap.

The policy can be tenant-specific and can include access privileges forusers, websites and/or content that is disallowed, restricted domains,DLP dictionaries, etc. Once downloaded, a tenant's policy is cacheduntil a policy change is made in the management system 120. The policycan be tenant-specific and can include access privileges for users,websites and/or content that is disallowed, restricted domains, DLPdictionaries, etc. When this happens, all of the cached policies arepurged, and the enforcement nodes 150 request the new policy when theuser 102 next makes a request. In an embodiment, the enforcement node150 exchange “heartbeats” periodically, so all enforcement nodes 150 areinformed when there is a policy change. Any enforcement node 150 canthen pull the change in policy when it sees a new request.

The cloud-based system 100 can be a private cloud, a public cloud, acombination of a private cloud and a public cloud (hybrid cloud), or thelike. Cloud computing systems and methods abstract away physicalservers, storage, networking, etc., and instead offer these as on-demandand elastic resources. The National Institute of Standards andTechnology (NIST) provides a concise and specific definition whichstates cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient, on-demandnetwork access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources(e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that canbe rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort orservice provider interaction. Cloud computing differs from the classicclient-server model by providing applications from a server that areexecuted and managed by a client's web browser or the like, with noinstalled client version of an application required. Centralizationgives cloud service providers complete control over the versions of thebrowser-based and other applications provided to clients, which removesthe need for version upgrades or license management on individual clientcomputing devices. The phrase “Software as a Service” (SaaS) issometimes used to describe application programs offered through cloudcomputing. A common shorthand for a provided cloud computing service (oreven an aggregation of all existing cloud services) is “the cloud.” Thecloud-based system 100 is illustrated herein as an example embodiment ofa cloud-based system, and other implementations are also contemplated.

As described herein, the terms cloud services and cloud applications maybe used interchangeably. The cloud service 106 is any service madeavailable to users on-demand via the Internet, as opposed to beingprovided from a company's on-premises servers. A cloud application, orcloud app, is a software program where cloud-based and local componentswork together. The cloud-based system 100 can be utilized to provideexample cloud services, including Zscaler Internet Access (ZIA), ZscalerPrivate Access (ZPA), and Zscaler Digital Experience (ZDX), all fromZscaler, Inc. (the assignee and applicant of the present application).The ZIA service can provide the access control, threat prevention, anddata protection described above with reference to the cloud-based system100. ZPA can include access control, microservice segmentation, etc. TheZDX service can provide monitoring of user experience, e.g., Quality ofExperience (QoE), Quality of Service (QoS), etc., in a manner that cangain insights based on continuous, inline monitoring. For example, theZIA service can provide a user with Internet Access, and the ZPA servicecan provide a user with access to enterprise resources instead oftraditional Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), namely ZPA provides ZeroTrust Network Access (ZTNA). Those of ordinary skill in the art willrecognize various other types of cloud services 106 are alsocontemplated. Also, other types of cloud architectures are alsocontemplated, with the cloud-based system 100 presented for illustrationpurposes.

Example Server Architecture

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a server 200, which may be used in thecloud-based system 100, in other systems, or standalone. For example,the enforcement nodes 150 and the central authority 152 may be formed asone or more of the servers 200. The server 200 may be a digital computerthat, in terms of hardware architecture, generally includes a processor202, input/output (I/O) interfaces 204, a network interface 206, a datastore 208, and memory 210. It should be appreciated by those of ordinaryskill in the art that FIG. 3 depicts the server 200 in an oversimplifiedmanner, and a practical embodiment may include additional components andsuitably configured processing logic to support known or conventionaloperating features that are not described in detail herein. Thecomponents (202, 204, 206, 208, and 210) are communicatively coupled viaa local interface 212. The local interface 212 may be, for example, butnot limited to, one or more buses or other wired or wirelessconnections, as is known in the art. The local interface 212 may haveadditional elements, which are omitted for simplicity, such ascontrollers, buffers (caches), drivers, repeaters, and receivers, amongmany others, to enable communications. Further, the local interface 212may include address, control, and/or data connections to enableappropriate communications among the aforementioned components.

The processor 202 is a hardware device for executing softwareinstructions. The processor 202 may be any custom made or commerciallyavailable processor, a Central Processing Unit (CPU), an auxiliaryprocessor among several processors associated with the server 200, asemiconductor-based microprocessor (in the form of a microchip orchipset), or generally any device for executing software instructions.When the server 200 is in operation, the processor 202 is configured toexecute software stored within the memory 210, to communicate data toand from the memory 210, and to generally control operations of theserver 200 pursuant to the software instructions. The I/O interfaces 204may be used to receive user input from and/or for providing systemoutput to one or more devices or components.

The network interface 206 may be used to enable the server 200 tocommunicate on a network, such as the Internet 104. The networkinterface 206 may include, for example, an Ethernet card or adapter or aWireless Local Area Network (WLAN) card or adapter. The networkinterface 206 may include address, control, and/or data connections toenable appropriate communications on the network. A data store 208 maybe used to store data. The data store 208 may include any of volatilememory elements (e.g., random access memory (RAM, such as DRAM, SRAM,SDRAM, and the like)), nonvolatile memory elements (e.g., ROM, harddrive, tape, CDROM, and the like), and combinations thereof.

Moreover, the data store 208 may incorporate electronic, magnetic,optical, and/or other types of storage media. In one example, the datastore 208 may be located internal to the server 200, such as, forexample, an internal hard drive connected to the local interface 212 inthe server 200. Additionally, in another embodiment, the data store 208may be located external to the server 200 such as, for example, anexternal hard drive connected to the I/O interfaces 204 (e.g., SCSI orUSB connection). In a further embodiment, the data store 208 may beconnected to the server 200 through a network, such as, for example, anetwork-attached file server.

The memory 210 may include any of volatile memory elements (e.g., randomaccess memory (RAM, such as DRAM, SRAM, SDRAM, etc.)), nonvolatilememory elements (e.g., ROM, hard drive, tape, CDROM, etc.), andcombinations thereof. Moreover, the memory 210 may incorporateelectronic, magnetic, optical, and/or other types of storage media. Notethat the memory 210 may have a distributed architecture, where variouscomponents are situated remotely from one another but can be accessed bythe processor 202. The software in memory 210 may include one or moresoftware programs, each of which includes an ordered listing ofexecutable instructions for implementing logical functions. The softwarein the memory 210 includes a suitable Operating System (O/S) 214 and oneor more programs 216. The operating system 214 essentially controls theexecution of other computer programs, such as the one or more programs216, and provides scheduling, input-output control, file and datamanagement, memory management, and communication control and relatedservices. The one or more programs 216 may be configured to implementthe various processes, algorithms, methods, techniques, etc. describedherein.

Example User Device Architecture

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a user device 300, which may be used withthe cloud-based system 100 or the like. Specifically, the user device300 can form a device used by one of the users 102, and this may includecommon devices such as laptops, smartphones, tablets, netbooks, personaldigital assistants, MP3 players, cell phones, e-book readers, IoTdevices, servers, desktops, printers, televisions, streaming mediadevices, and the like. The present disclosure relates to mobile devices,which are one subset of the user device 300. The user device 300 can bea digital device that, in terms of hardware architecture, generallyincludes a processor 302, I/O interfaces 304, a network interface 306, adata store 308, and memory 310. It should be appreciated by those ofordinary skill in the art that FIG. 4 depicts the user device 300 in anoversimplified manner, and a practical embodiment may include additionalcomponents and suitably configured processing logic to support known orconventional operating features that are not described in detail herein.The components (302, 304, 306, 308, and 302) are communicatively coupledvia a local interface 312. The local interface 312 can be, for example,but not limited to, one or more buses or other wired or wirelessconnections, as is known in the art. The local interface 312 can haveadditional elements, which are omitted for simplicity, such ascontrollers, buffers (caches), drivers, repeaters, and receivers, amongmany others, to enable communications. Further, the local interface 312may include address, control, and/or data connections to enableappropriate communications among the aforementioned components.

The processor 302 is a hardware device for executing softwareinstructions. The processor 302 can be any custom made or commerciallyavailable processor, a CPU, an auxiliary processor among severalprocessors associated with the user device 300, a semiconductor-basedmicroprocessor (in the form of a microchip or chipset), or generally anydevice for executing software instructions. When the user device 300 isin operation, the processor 302 is configured to execute software storedwithin the memory 310, to communicate data to and from the memory 310,and to generally control operations of the user device 300 pursuant tothe software instructions. In an embodiment, the processor 302 mayinclude a mobile-optimized processor such as optimized for powerconsumption and mobile applications. The I/O interfaces 304 can be usedto receive user input from and/or for providing system output. Userinput can be provided via, for example, a keypad, a touch screen, ascroll ball, a scroll bar, buttons, a barcode scanner, and the like.System output can be provided via a display device such as a LiquidCrystal Display (LCD), touch screen, and the like.

The network interface 306 enables wireless communication to an externalaccess device or network. Any number of suitable wireless datacommunication protocols, techniques, or methodologies can be supportedby the network interface 306, including any protocols for wirelesscommunication. The data store 308 may be used to store data. The datastore 308 may include any of volatile memory elements (e.g., randomaccess memory (RAM, such as DRAM, SRAM, SDRAM, and the like)),nonvolatile memory elements (e.g., ROM, hard drive, tape, CDROM, and thelike), and combinations thereof. Moreover, the data store 308 mayincorporate electronic, magnetic, optical, and/or other types of storagemedia.

The memory 310 may include any of volatile memory elements (e.g., randomaccess memory (RAM, such as DRAM, SRAM, SDRAM, etc.)), nonvolatilememory elements (e.g., ROM, hard drive, etc.), and combinations thereof.Moreover, the memory 310 may incorporate electronic, magnetic, optical,and/or other types of storage media. Note that the memory 310 may have adistributed architecture, where various components are situated remotelyfrom one another but can be accessed by the processor 302. The softwarein memory 310 can include one or more software programs, each of whichincludes an ordered listing of executable instructions for implementinglogical functions. In the example of FIG. 3, the software in the memory310 includes a suitable operating system 314 and programs 316. Theoperating system 314 essentially controls the execution of othercomputer programs and provides scheduling, input-output control, fileand data management, memory management, and communication control andrelated services. The programs 316 may include various applications,add-ons, etc. configured to provide end-user functionality with the userdevice 300. For example, example programs 316 may include, but notlimited to, a web browser, social networking applications, streamingmedia applications, games, mapping and location applications, electronicmail applications, financial applications, and the like. In a typicalexample, the end-user typically uses one or more of the programs 316along with a network such as the cloud-based system 100.

User Device Application for Traffic Forwarding and Monitoring

FIG. 5 is a network diagram of the cloud-based system 100 illustratingan application 350 on user devices 300 with users 102 configured tooperate through the cloud-based system 100. Different types of userdevices 300 are proliferating, including Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) aswell as IT-managed devices. The conventional approach for a user device300 to operate with the cloud-based system 100 as well as for accessingenterprise resources includes complex policies, VPNs, poor userexperience, etc. The application 350 can automatically forward usertraffic with the cloud-based system 100 as well as ensuring thatsecurity and access policies are enforced, regardless of device,location, operating system, or application. The application 350automatically determines if a user 102 is looking to access the openInternet 104, a SaaS app, or an internal app running in public, private,or the datacenter and routes mobile traffic through the cloud-basedsystem 100. The application 350 can support various cloud services,including ZIA, ZPA, ZDX, etc., allowing the best in class security withzero trust access to internal apps. As described herein, the application350 can also be referred to as a connector application.

The application 350 is configured to auto-route traffic for a seamlessuser experience. This can be protocol as well as application-specific,and the application 350 can route traffic with a nearest or best fitenforcement node 150. Further, the application 350 can detect trustednetworks, allowed applications, etc. and support secure network access.The application 350 can also support the enrollment of the user device300 prior to accessing applications. The application 350 can uniquelydetect the users 102 based on fingerprinting the user device 300, usingcriteria like device model, platform, operating system, etc. Theapplication 350 can support Mobile Device Management (MDM) functions,allowing IT personnel to deploy and manage the user devices 300seamlessly. This can also include the automatic installation of clientand SSL certificates during enrollment. Finally, the application 350provides visibility into device and app usage of the user 102 of theuser device 300.

The application 350 supports a secure, lightweight tunnel between theuser device 300 and the cloud-based system 100. For example, thelightweight tunnel can be HTTP-based. With the application 350, there isno requirement for PAC files, an IPSec VPN, authentication cookies, orend user 102 setup.

Zero Trust Network Access Using the Cloud-Based System

FIG. 6 is a network diagram of a Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA)application utilizing the cloud-based system 100. For ZTNA, thecloud-based system 100 can dynamically create a connection through asecure tunnel between an endpoint (e.g., users 102A, 102B) that areremote and an on-premises connector 400 that is either located in cloudfile shares and applications 402 and/or in an enterprise network 420that includes enterprise file shares and applications 404. Theconnection between the cloud-based system 100 and on-premises connector400 is dynamic, on-demand, and orchestrated by the cloud-based system100. A key feature is its security at the edge—there is no need to punchany holes in the existing on-premises firewall. The connector 400 insidethe enterprise (on-premises) “dials out” and connects to the cloud-basedsystem 100 as if too were an endpoint. This on-demand dial-outcapability and tunneling authenticated traffic back to the enterprise isa key differentiator for ZTNA. Also, this functionality can beimplemented in part by the application 350 on the user device 300.

The paradigm of virtual private access systems and methods is to giveusers network access to get to an application and/or file share, not tothe entire network. If a user is not authorized to get the application,the user should not be able even to see that it exists, much less accessit. The virtual private access systems and methods provide an approachto deliver secure access by decoupling applications 402, 404 from thenetwork, instead of providing access with a connector 400, in front ofthe applications 402, 404, an application on the user device 300, acentral authority 152 to push policy 410, and the cloud-based system 100to stitch the applications 402, 404 and the software connectors 400together, on a per-user, per-application basis.

With the virtual private access, users can only see the specificapplications 402, 404 allowed by the policy 410. Everything else is“invisible” or “dark” to them. Because the virtual private accessseparates the application from the network, the physical location of theapplication 402, 404 becomes irrelevant—if applications 402, 404 arelocated in more than one place, the user is automatically directed tothe instance that will give them the best performance. The virtualprivate access also dramatically reduces configuration complexity, suchas policies/firewalls in the data centers. Enterprises can, for example,move applications to Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure, and takeadvantage of the elasticity of the cloud, making private, internalapplications behave just like the marketing leading enterpriseapplications. Advantageously, there is no hardware to buy or deploy,because the virtual private access is a service offering to end-usersand enterprises. FIG. 5 can include the ZPA service from Zscaler, Inc.

Digital Experience Monitoring

FIG. 7 is a network diagram of the cloud-based system 100 in anapplication of digital experience monitoring. Here, the cloud-basedsystem 100 providing security as a service as well as ZTNA, can also beused to provide real-time, continuous digital experience monitoring, asopposed to conventional approaches (synthetic probes). A key aspect ofthe architecture of the cloud-based system 100 is the inline monitoring.This means data is accessible in real-time for individual users fromend-to-end. As described herein, digital experience monitoring caninclude monitoring, analyzing, and improving the digital userexperience.

The cloud-based system 100 connects users 102 at the locations 112, 118to the applications 402, 404, the Internet 104, the cloud services 106,etc. The inline, end-to-end visibility of all users enables digitalexperience monitoring. The cloud-based system 100 can monitor, diagnose,generate alerts, and perform remedial actions with respect to networkendpoints, network components, network links, etc. The network endpointscan include servers, virtual machines, containers, storage systems, oranything with an IP address, including the Internet of Things (IoT),cloud, and wireless endpoints. With these components, these networkendpoints can be monitored directly in combination with a networkperspective. Thus, the cloud-based system 100 provides a uniquearchitecture that can enable digital experience monitoring, networkapplication monitoring, infrastructure component interactions, etc. Ofnote, these various monitoring aspects require no additionalcomponents—the cloud-based system 100 leverages the existinginfrastructure to provide this service.

Again, digital experience monitoring includes the capture of data abouthow end-to-end application availability, latency, and quality appear tothe end user from a network perspective. This is limited to the networktraffic visibility and not within components, such as what applicationperformance monitoring can accomplish. Networked application monitoringprovides the speed and overall quality of networked application deliveryto the user in support of key business activities. Infrastructurecomponent interactions include a focus on infrastructure components asthey interact via the network, as well as the network delivery ofservices or applications. This includes the ability to provide networkpath analytics.

The cloud-based system 100 can enable real-time performance andbehaviors for troubleshooting in the current state of the environment,historical performance and behaviors to understand what occurred or whatis trending over time, predictive behaviors by leveraging analyticstechnologies to distill and create actionable items from the largedataset collected across the various data sources, and the like. Thecloud-based system 100 includes the ability to directly ingest any ofthe following data sources network device-generated health data, networkdevice-generated traffic data, including flow-based data sourcesinclusive of NetFlow and IPFIX, raw network packet analysis to identifyapplication types and performance characteristics, HTTP request metrics,etc. The cloud-based system 100 can operate at 10 gigabits (10G)Ethernet and higher at full line rate and support a rate of 100,000 ormore flows per second or higher.

The applications 402, 404 can include enterprise applications, Office365, Salesforce, Skype, Google apps, internal applications, etc. Theseare critical business applications where user experience is important.The objective here is to collect various data points so that userexperience can be quantified for a particular user, at a particulartime, for purposes of analyzing the experience as well as improving theexperience. In an embodiment, the monitored data can be from differentcategories, including application-related, network-related,device-related (also can be referred to as endpoint-related),protocol-related, etc. Data can be collected at the application 350 orthe cloud edge to quantify user experience for specific applications,i.e., the application-related and device-related data. The cloud-basedsystem 100 can further collect the network-related and theprotocol-related data (e.g., Domain Name System (DNS) response time).

Application-Related Data

Page Load Time Redirect count (#) Page Response Time Throughput (bps)Document Object Model (DOM) Load Total size (bytes) Time TotalDownloaded bytes Page error count (#) App availability (%) Page elementcount by category (#)

Network-Related Data

HTTP Request metrics Bandwidth Server response time Jitter Ping packetloss (%) Trace Route Ping round trip DNS lookup trace Packet loss (%)GRE/IPSec tunnel monitoring Latency MTU and bandwidth measurements

Device-Related Data (Endpoint-Related Data)

System details Network (config) Central Processing Unit (CPU) DiskMemory (RAM) Processes Network (interfaces) Applications

Metrics could be combined. For example, device health can be based on acombination of CPU, memory, etc. Network health could be a combinationof Wi-Fi/LAN connection health, latency, etc. Application health couldbe a combination of response time, page loads, etc. The cloud-basedsystem 100 can generate service health as a combination of CPU, memory,and the load time of the service while processing a user's request. Thenetwork health could be based on the number of network path(s), latency,packet loss, etc.

The lightweight connector 400 can also generate similar metrics for theapplications 402, 404. In an embodiment, the metrics can be collectedwhile a user is accessing specific applications that user experience isdesired for monitoring. In another embodiment, the metrics can beenriched by triggering synthetic measurements in the context of aninline transaction by the application 350 or cloud edge. The metrics canbe tagged with metadata (user, time, app, etc.) and sent to a loggingand analytics service for aggregation, analysis, and reporting. Further,network administrators can get UEX reports from the cloud-based system100. Due to the inline nature and the fact the cloud-based system 100 isan overlay (in-between users and services/applications), the cloud-basedsystem 100 enables the ability to capture user experience metric datacontinuously and to log such data historically. As such, a networkadministrator can have a long-term detailed view of the network andassociated user experience.

Connector Application

FIG. 8 is a network diagram of the use of the application 350 as aconnector application and associated connectivity and functionality withthe cloud-based system 100. Again, the connector application 350 isexecuted on a user device 300. The connector application 350 dynamicallylearns all available services, adapts to changing network environments,and provides a seamless and secure network resource access to Internetand darknet hosted applications. This is achieved through dynamicevaluation of network conditions, enrollment to individual services,learning individual service protocols, creating a link-local network onthe user device 300, and establishing multiple secure tunnels to cloudservices over this local network.

The connector application 350 is communicatively coupled to an agentmanager cloud 606, as well as the cloud-based system 100. The connectorapplication 350 enables communication to enterprise private resources onthe enterprise network 420 via the cloud-based system 100 and to theInternet 104 via the cloud-based system 100. The agent manager cloud 606can communicate with enterprise asset management 614, an enterpriseSecurity Assertion Markup Language (SAML) Identity Provider (IDP) 616,and an enterprise Certificate Authority (CA) 618. The user device 300and the connector application 350 can perform a registration/identity620 process through the agent manager cloud 606 where the user identity,the user's certificates, and a device fingerprint can uniquely identifythe user device 300. Once registered, the connector application 350 hasan identity 622, which can include the user, certificates, deviceposture, etc. and which is shared with the cloud-based system 100.

The connector application 350 operates on a client-server model where anIT admin enables appropriate services for end users at a CloudAdministration Server (CAS), which can be part of the agent managercloud 606, namely the enterprise asset management 614. Every client canmake a unicast request to the agent manager cloud 606 (e.g., CAS) todiscover all enabled services. On acknowledging the response, the clientissues a request to authenticate to each service's cloud IdentityProviders, the enterprise SAML IDP 616. Authentication can bemulti-factor depending upon the nature of the service. On successfulauthentication, the server contacts Mobile Device Management (MDM) orInventory management provider to define access control rights for theuser device 300. Post authorization, the user device 300 is successfullyenrolled in the agent manager cloud 606, which tracks and monitors allbehavior of the user device 300.

Post-enrollment, the user device 300 creates a link local network with aspecific IP configuration, opens a virtual network interface to read andwrite packets to create secure tunnels to available services through thecloud-based system 100. On network changes, the user device 300dynamically evaluates reachability to pre-configured domains anddepending upon the result, it appropriately transitions all networktunnels, thus providing a seamless experience to the end user. Further,the user device 300 also intelligently learns the conditions which areappropriate for setting up network tunnels to cloud services dependingupon several network heuristics such as reachability to a particularcloud service.

Connector Application—Functionality

Generally, the connector application 350 supports two broad functionalcategories—1) dynamic service discovery and access controls and 2)service availability. The dynamic service discovery and access controlsinclude service configuration by the administrator, service discovery bythe user device 300, service acknowledgment and authentication, serviceauthorization and enrollment, and the like. For service configuration bythe administrator, the IT admin can provide cloud service details at acentralized knowledge server, such as part of the agent manager cloud606, the enterprise asset management 614, etc. The cloud service detailsinclude the service type (e.g., Internet/intranet), network protocol,identity provider, server address, port, and access controls, etc.

For service discovery by the user device 300, the user device 300 canissue a network request to a known Cloud Administrative Server (CAS) inthe agent manager cloud 606 to discover all enabled services for a user.If a specific cloud server is not known a priori, the user device 300can broadcast the request to multiple clouds, e.g., through the agentmanager cloud 606 communicating to the enterprise asset management 614,the enterprise SAML IDP 616, and the enterprise CA 618.

For the service acknowledgment and authentication, the user device 300acknowledges the response of service discovery and initiates theauthentication flow. The user device 300 learns the authenticationprotocol through the service discovery configuration and performsauthentication of a configured nature at the enterprise SAML IDP 616.For the service authorization and enrollment, post successfulauthentication, the CAS authorizes the user device 300, and fetches theaccess control information by contacting an MDM/Inventory SolutionsProvider. Depending upon the user context and the nature of access, theCAS enrolls the user device 300 into several cloud services and informsthe cloud services that the user has been enrolled for access.

The service availability includes link local network setup, a trafficinterceptor, and dynamic traffic forwarding tunnels to authorizedservices. The link-local network setup, post-enrollment, has the userdevice 300 create a local network on the user device 300 itself tomanage various networking functionalities. For the traffic interceptor,the user device 300 intercepts and evaluates all Internet traffic.Allowed traffic is tunneled to the cloud services such as in thecloud-based system 100, whereas the rest of the traffic is denied as perenterprise policies. For the dynamic traffic forwarding tunnels toauthorized services, depending upon the evaluation, the user device 300splits the traffic into the different tunnel to individual cloudservices such as in the cloud-based system 100.

The connector application 350 is a single application that providessecure connectivity to the Internet 104 and darknet hosted applications,such as the enterprise private resources in the enterprise network 420.The connector application 350 communicates securely to the agent managercloud 606, which is controlled by an IT admin. The connector application350 learns available services and authenticates with each service. Postproper enrollment, the connector application 350 securely connects tocloud services by means of network tunnels.

Connector Application—Workflow

FIG. 9 is a network diagram of the example workflow of the connectorapplication 350. The user device 300 again executes the connectorapplication 350, as well as a browser 630 (or some other applicationrequesting network services). First, the user device 300 includesauthentication through an application portal 632 and download/install ofthe connector application 350 therefrom (step 640-1). Note, theapplication portal 632 can be a website, Apple's app store, Google Play,Windows Store, etc. Once installed, the connector application 350communicates to the agent manager cloud 606 communicating identity andasking for available services (“I am User X, what are my services?”) andthe agent manager cloud 606 responds with the available services (“Youhave Z services”) (step 640-2).

Next, the connector application 350 includes authentication using a VPNService Provider (SP) with the cloud-based system 100 (step 640-3). Theconnector application 350 next enrolls the user device 300 through theagent manager cloud 606 (step 640-4). The agent manager cloud 606performs a device asset policy check with the enterprise assetmanagement 614 (step 640-5). The agent manager cloud 606, upon thesuccessful check, provides the connector application 350 an affirmativeresponse (step 640-6). The connector application 350 sends a CertificateSigning Request (CSR) to the agent manager cloud 606 (step 640-7), andthe agent manager cloud 606 sends the CSR request to the enterprise CA,and the certificate is returned to the connector application 350 (step640-8). Finally, the connector application 350 enables VPN connectivityto the cloud-based system 100 (step 640-9).

FIG. 10 is a flow diagram of an event sequence associated with theconnector application 350. The event sequence is shown between the userdevice 300 executing the connector application 350, a mobile adminfunction 650 such as implemented through the agent manager cloud 606, anenforcement node 150, a VPN node 652 such as through the cloud-basedsystem 100, an MDM function 654 such as through the enterprise assetmanagement 614, and an IDP function 656 such as through the enterpriseSAML IDP 616. The user device 300 discovers services with the mobileadmin function 650 (step 660), and the user device 300 is authenticatedby the IDP function 656 (step 662). The user device 300 enrolls indiscovered services through the mobile admin function 650 (step 664).

The mobile admin function 650 is configured to authorize the serviceswith the MDM function 654 (step 666), enroll in the services through theVPN node 652 (step 668), and the enforcement nodes 150 (step 670). Asuccess/error is provided by the mobile admin function 650 to the userdevice 300 (step 672). Subsequently, the user device 300, through theconnector application 350, accesses the services such as a secure tunnelfor internet access through the enforcement nodes 150 (step 674) or asecure tunnel for intranet access through the VPN node 652 (step 676).

Connector Application—Architecture

FIG. 11 is a logical diagram of the functional components of theconnector application 350. The connector application 350 is configuredto operate on the mobile user device 300. The cloud-based system 100 canprovide Internet security as well as cloud-based remote access toenterprise internal resources through a VPN. These cloud services aredesigned and well suited for road warriors. Road warriors are the userswho are accessing the Internet 104 and enterprise internal services fromoutside the corporate physical network perimeter. These are the users102 who are accessing the Internet 104 and Enterprise resources fromhome, airports, coffee shops, and other external unsecured hotspots.

The connector application 350 provides authenticated and encryptedtunnels from road warrior devices 300 and, in some use cases, it evenneeds to be enforceable so that end users cannot disable the connectorapplication 350. The VPN, which is the remote access service, also needsauthenticated and encrypted tunnel from road warrior user devices 300.Both of these solutions also need to provide feedback to the end user inthe event that access was blocked due to security or compliance reasons.The following describes the architecture and design of the connectorapplication 350, including an endpoint client architecture, backendchanges, auto-update, and integration with the cloud-based system 100.

The connector application 350 includes logical components including viewcomponents 702, business processes and services 704, data 706, andcross-cutting functions 708. The view components 702 include UserInterface (UI) components 710 and UI process components 712. Thebusiness processes and services 704 include a tray user process 714, ahelper user process 716, a tunnel system service 718, a posture systemservice 720, and an updater system service 722. The data 706 includesencrypted data 724, configuration data 726, and logs 728. Thecross-cutting functions 708 are across the view components 702, thebusiness processes and services 704, and the data 706 and includesecurity 730, logging 732, and statistics 734.

The connector application 350 has a useful goal of simplifiedprovisioning of the proxy (for security through the cloud-based system100 to the Internet 104) and the VPN (for access through the cloud-basedsystem 100 to the enterprise private resources in the enterprise network420). That is, the connector application 350 allows the use of thecloud-based system 100 as a proxy for Internet-bound communications. Theconnector application 350 further allows the use of the cloud-basedsystem 100 as a tunnel for Intranet-bound communications to theenterprise private resources. With the connector application 350 settingup a local network at the user device 300, the connector application 350can manage communications between the Internet and the intranet, i.e.,two of the main categories of cloud services—proxy to the Internet andtunnel to the intranet. The connector application 350 further hasobjectives of simplified user enrollment in the proxy and tunnels.

In an embodiment, the connector application 350 is a native application.The common functionality is abstracted out and made into commonlibraries based on C or C++ so that it can be reused across differentplatforms (e.g., iOS, Android, etc.). Example functionality: Trafficforwarding tunnels, local proxy, authentication backend, logging,statistics, etc. The UI components 710 and UI process components 712 canbe platform dependent. Also, the connector application 350 is designedand implementable such that other third-party VPN applications, ifconfigured by the enterprise, can be used concurrently.

The app portal 632 enables the installation of the connector application350 on the user device 300. For example, an admin may be able to pushand install the connector application 350 to the user device 300 usingremote-push mechanisms like GPO, MDMs, etc. Additionally, the user candownload the connector application 350 if they have access to theinstallation file and install it on their own. The connector application350 supports automatic updates without impacting the user's Internetexperience. If a problem is encountered, then it should roll back to thepreviously successful state or fail open. The connector application 350can have a security check to ensure that it is not tampered and updatedfrom the right source with a hash match with a source hash whenupgrading.

The user can log into the connector application 350. Once the user sendstheir User ID through the connector application 350 to the agent managercloud 606, the cloud-based system 100, and/or the app portal 632, theapp portal 632 can determine the company's authentication mechanism,such as through a lookup in the enterprise asset management 614, andvalidate password through the enterprise CA 618.

Through the connector application 350, a user can be authenticated tothe proxy or the VPN through the cloud-based system 100. Forauthentication of the user to the proxy, using SAML, the user can loginto the connector application 350 by using their user ID andtransparent SAML authentication thereafter, including SAML certificate.The app portal 632 shall determine that an organization is using SAMLfor authentication through the enterprise CA 618 and redirect to theenterprise SAML IDP 616 to get SAML assertion and use it to authenticatethe user.

For authentication of the user to the tunnel, using SAML, the user canlog into the connector application 350 by just using their user ID andbased on the user ID, the connector application 350 shall redirect theuser for authentication to enterprise SAML IDP 616 and SAML assertionshall be sent. The VPN service shall validate SAML assertion; if theassertion is valid, then the connector application 350 shall collecthardware parameters like device serial number, model number, etc. andcreate CSR. The CSR shall be signed by the enterprise CA 618, and thecertificate shall be pushed to the connector application 350. Theconnector application 350 shall install the certificate to KMS/keychainand save assertion.

After the user has been successfully authenticated, the user shall beenrolled in the proxy service, and the user's traffic forwarding profileshall be downloaded from application 350, including Secure Sockets Layer(SSL) certificates and exceptions. The connector application 350 shallindicate that the user is connected to cloud-based system 100, and appstatistics shall be populated.

After the user has successfully authenticated (including transparentauthentication), the user shall be enrolled with a VPN service, and theVPN broker info shall be downloaded by the connector application 350,and the VPN tunnel shall be established. The connector application 350can support captive portal detection to fail open when users are behinda captive portal to allow connection to a captive portal.

The connector application 350 can forward internal enterprise trafficfrom the user device 300 to the VPN. The connector application 350 canrecognize when a user goes to an internal app that is provisioned withthe VPN service. The connector application 350 shall auto-enable atunnel to the VPN service when the user tries connecting to an internalapp. The proxy service can always be enforced, and the user is not ableto remove it by switching off the tunnel or removing the connectorapplication 350. Without the proxy solution enforced, the user is notable to access the Internet and would be prompted to restart the websecurity service, via the connector application 350.

The VPN is an on-demand service, unlike the proxy service that shall beenforceable by default so that the user can enable/disable the VPN atwill without any password requirements. Once the user logs into the VPNservice using a ‘Connect,’ the same button shall be labeled‘Disconnect,’ and the user shall be able to disconnect the VPN servicewith a single click. Every time user disconnects with VPN service. TheVPN service can be auto-disabled if the user puts their system to sleepmode or there is inactivity (no packets exchanged) after x minutes (xshall be configurable in the VPN settings).

The admin can turn off the proxy service with a single client from anadmin UI for a user, all users, or some subset of users. This does notremove the connector application 350 from the user device 300. A usermay be able to disable the proxy service, provided they have theauthority and credentials. The connector application 350 can provideservice-related notifications to the user. For example, the connectorapplication 350 can provide notifications such as push alerts or thelike as well as contain a notification area for a single place to showall notifications that are generated by the proxy service and the VPNservice. This shall also include app notifications, includingconfiguration updates, agent updates, etc. The user shall be able toclear notifications as well as filter notifications from this screen.This shall include a filter for VPN/Proxy, blocked, cautioned,quarantine actions.

Connector Application—User Workflow

Again, the connector application 350 is executed on the user device 300.For authentication, the user enters a User ID in the connectorapplication 350, such as userid@domain. Subsequently, the connectorapplication 350 is configured to discover the services enabled—proxyservice and VPN services based on userid@domain. The user authenticateswith the presented services, i.e., proxy service, VPN services, andcombinations thereof. The connector application 350 is auto-provisionedfor the authenticated service by downloading the service-specificconfiguration. The connector application 350 performs the followingduring VPN enrollment—get the User/Device certificate signed by anEnterprise Intermediate Certificate. This Intermediate Certificate willbe the same, which will be used for signing Assistants. The connectorapplication 350 also will pin hardware signatures/fingerprints to thecertificate and user, e.g., Storage Serial ID (Hard Drive Serial ID),CPU ID, Mother Board Serial ID, BIOS serial number, etc.

Connector Application—Authentication and Enrollment Protocol

FIG. 12 is a flowchart of a proxy authentication process 750 to thecloud-based system 100. For authentication in the proxy service,conventionally, devices 300 can use proxy authentication to register tothe cloud-based system 100. This is not truly reliable as it depends onlocation/location-authentication policy/VPN and other such factors towork correctly. To simplify this flow, the following new flow can beused with the connector application 350 for the process 750. First, themobile client user device 300 initiates an HTTPS request to a CA (e.g.,the enterprise CA 618) (step 752). For example, this can be as follows:

-   login.zscaler.net/clstart?version=1&_domain=nestle.com&redrurl=<url-encoded-url-with-schema>    If the domain is invalid or if the redrurl is missing, CA will reset    the connection.

The above endpoint begins the client auth flow (step 754). The provideddomain is the company that requires the auth. The CA looks up the domainto find the company and their auth mechanism. If the company uses hostedor Active Directory (AD)/Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)authentication [SAML auth flow starts at step 760], the response will bea login form with input fields for [username] & [password] (step 756).The form is submitted via POST to the CA at a below endpoint:

https://login.zscaler.net/clicred. The HTTP content may look like belowPOST /clicred Host: login.zscaler.net Content-Length: xyzusername=xyz@nestle.com&password=123456&redrurl=<url-encoded-posturl-with-schema>

Next, the CA performs user/password validation and responds with themessage explained in step 762 (step 758). If the company uses SAML, theresponse to the request in step 752 will be the SAMLRequest form (step760). The SAMLRequest form will auto-submit to the IDP. Once authcompletes, the CA gets control back with the identity of the user. OnceSAMLResponse comes back, send the response as a 307 redirect to redrurlwith a below format (step 762)

Location: zsa://auth[?token=encrypted-cookie&...] to be appended. 307query params ---------------- token= (on success) ecode= (on error)emsg= (on error)On error, send the same redrurl with below format

-   zsa://auth?ecode=<code>&emsg=<message>

FIG. 13 is a flowchart of a VPN authentication process 780 to thecloud-based system 100. The client (user device 300) issues a GET webrequest to the VPN authentication server with the domain name as thequery parameter (step 782), such as:

-   GET //<auth-server>?domain=mockcompany.com    The server identifies the IDP for the given domain and responds with    a Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) page containing a SAML Request    (step 784). The client will redirect to the IDP with the SAML    Request (step 786). The IDP will challenge the client for    credentials, which can be of the form of a username/password or    client identity certificate (step 788). On successful    authentication, IDP will generate a SAMLResponse for the VPN    authentication server (step 790). The client will record the    SAMLAssertion for future tunnel negotiation. In the case of error,    the server will resend the challenge to the user (step 792).

FIG. 14 is a flowchart of a device enrollment process 800 for the clientuser device 300 and the connector application 350. Post successfulauthentication with all services, in this case, the proxy services, andthe VPN services, the client sends an enrollment request to mobile admin(Cloud Administrative Server CAS) (step 802). The request contains adevice fingerprint and an authentication context for each service toidentify the user (step 804). For example, the cloud-based system 100can use cookies, and the VPN can use SAMLAssertion for theauthentication context. The mobile admin (agent manager cloud 606)performs inventory lookup with device fingerprints at the MDM server toauthorize the user and the user device 300 (step 806). On successfulauthorization, the mobile admin server enrolls the user to cloudservices with their authentication contexts (step 808). Each cloudservice responds with specific access controls and protocol informationthat the client receives from mobile admin and uses for local networksetup (step 810).

Connector Application—Traffic Interception and Splitting

Again, to protect Internet-bound traffic and simultaneously accessenterprise-specific Intranet traffic, the user device 300 needs toconnect through multiple applications. Again, it is not straightforwardfor users to configure these applications in different networks, anddifferent VPN and proxy solutions arise compatibility issues whenoperating simultaneously. The connector application 350 is designed tosolve all these issues. The connector application 350 handles both proxy(Internet-bound) traffic, and Enterprise Intranet bound traffic. Theconnector application 350 provides secure access to Organizationalinternal resources when the user is outside of the enterprise network.For Internet-bound traffic, it will forward traffic to the enforcementnode 150, and for intranet bound traffic, it will forward traffic to aVPN (Broker) or direct if the user is inside the organization network.

The connector application 350 is configured to intercept all traffic,specifically to intercept all Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)traffic and DNS traffic before it goes out through the external networkinterface in the user device 300. The connector application 350 canintercept other types of traffic as well, such as the User DatagramProtocol (UDP). The connector application 350 is configured to splittraffic at the user device 300, i.e., based on a local networkconfigured at the user device 300. Split traffic based upon port,protocol, and destination IP. The connector application 350 isconfigured to send VPN traffic direct for trusted networks(organization's internal network). The connector application 350 canalso coexist with other VPN clients, i.e., it does not intercept thetraffic targeted for those interfaces by specific routes.

Thus, the connector application 350 is configured to intercept alltraffic at the IP layer for the device 300 or other VPN client's defaultroute. Then, the connector application 350 is configured to splittraffic. Based upon port, protocol, and destination IP as configured bythe IT administrator

FIG. 15 is a flowchart of a traffic interception process 820 implementedthrough the connector application 350. The connector application 350registers and sets up a new Network Adapter (TUN interface) on thedevice (step 822). The connector application 350 overrides the device'snetwork default route by configuring the default route of higherpriority for the TUN interface (step 824). The connector application 350sets a specific route (exact match) for all DNS servers configured onthe user device 300 with the highest priority (step 826). The connectorapplication 350 will not override other specific routes of an externaladapter or other VPN clients (step 828).

For each IP packet coming to the TUN interface, packet processing isperformed (step 830). The application does a <port, protocol,destination-IP> lookup on every IP packet and sends it on one of thededicated tunnels based upon configured rules of packet transport.

FIG. 16 is a flow diagram of traffic interception and splitting 850using the connector application 350. Again, the connector application350 creates and operates a tunnel (TUN) interface 852 on the user device300. The user device 300 includes one or more client applications 854,which can be any program or service executable on the user device 300,which requires access to the network interface on the user device 300.Traffic for the default route from the client applications 854 is sentto the TUN interface 852, but traffic for specific routes can be sent toother interfaces 856, separate from the TUN interface, for directconnectivity to the Internet 104, such as via VPN services or direct.

The TUN interface 852 splits 858 all traffic. TCP traffic for internaldomains is sent to a VPN/broker server 860, TCP port 80/443 traffic issent to the cloud-based system 100 for a proxy such as to theenforcement node 150. Finally, other traffic can be sent directly to theInternet 104. In this manner, the TUN interface 852 operates a localnetwork at the user device 300.

FIG. 17 is a flow diagram of tunnel forwarding rules 940 by theconnector application 350. A periodic health monitor function 942operates, based on a periodic timer 944, to check a PAC ping and agateway connect ping to provide a state to a bypass fail/open module946. A network state change function 948 is configured to detect anetwork change event 950 such as DNS server address, DNS search domains,on-net host DNS lookups, etc., and to provide a state to the bypassfail/open module 946. The bypass fail/open module 946 creates an activetunnel 952 or disabled tunnel 954 based on the states.

Service Driven Split Tunneling

FIG. 18 is a flowchart of a service drive split tunneling process 980.The service drive split tunneling process 980provides betterscalability, security, and segmentation of traffic in mobile and cloudenvironments. The service-driven split tunneling process 980 can includethe traffic interception and splitting 850 using the connectorapplication 350. Again, as illustrated in FIG. 18, the connectorapplication 350 creates and operates a tunnel (TUN) interface 852 on themobile user device 300. The mobile user device 300 includes one or moreclient applications 854, which can be any program or service executableon the user device 300, which requires access to the network interfaceon the user device 300. Traffic for the default route from the clientapplications 854 is sent to the TUN interface 852, but traffic forspecific routes can be sent to other interfaces 856, separate from theTUN interface, for direct connectivity to the Internet 104, such as viaVPN services or direct.

The service drive split tunneling process 980 includes a mobileapplication/agent which is installed on a mobile device for packetinterception (step 982). For example, the mobile application/agent canbe the connector application 350 on the mobile user device 300. Themobile application/agent can inject a default route on the mobile devicepointing to its own interface to get all Layer 2 or Layer 3 packets.

The mobile application/agent is configured with a set of rules (step984). The set of rules can be learned at runtime (as the mobileapplication/agent operates, configured at application launch, configuredduring application operation, and a combination thereof. For example,the set of rules can be configured by IT administrators for specificusers, groups, departments, etc. and sent to the mobileapplication/agent. Further, the set of rules can be learned based on theoperation of the mobile application/agent.

The set of rules can be an array of tuples of included and excludedtraffic. For example, the array of tuples can include the followingformat

<exclude, destination_port, protocol, destination_IP address_subnet>

<include, destination_port, protocol, destination_IP address_subnet,transport_type>

For example, a set of rules can include

<include, 443, TCP, 17.0.0.0/8, <TCP, gateway.zscaler.net:80

This rule would tunnel all TCP port 443 traffic destined to 17.0.0.0/8subnet over a TCP transport on port 80 to host.com. Another rule caninclude

<exclude, 53, UDP, *>

This rule does not tunnel any UDP port 53 (DNS) traffic, but rathersends it direct.

Based on the set of rules, the mobile application/agent opens tunnels todifferent host concentrators (step 986). As described herein, the hostconcentrators can be the enforcement nodes 150, etc. The tunnel may ormay not be authenticated depending upon the requirements. For thetraffic that needs to go direct, the mobile application/agent proxiesthe connections locally through a RAW Socket or via a custom TCP/IPStack embedded within the application itself

The mobile application/agent intercepts packets on the user device andforwards over the tunnels based on the set of rules (step 988). Throughthis granular splitting of network traffic, IT administrators will havebetter control of the network traffic in terms of security andscalability. For instance, an IT admin can now control that only specialtraffic such as Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) should go outside thetunnel, and rest should go to some security gateway or vice versa. Anynumber of complex rules is hence possible.

End users will also have significant performance benefits overtraditional SSL/IPSec VPNs where traffic of different needs compete witheach other. The service drive split tunneling process 980 allowsfunction-driven security and on-demand scalability for differentservices. So, File Transfer Protocol (FTP) traffic goes to a secure FTPproxy, Web traffic (TCP, port 80 traffic) goes to a Web proxy, HTTPS(TCP, port 443) goes to an SSL acceleration proxy, SIP traffic goes toSIP traffic processing concentrator and so on.

Traffic Forwarding Based on Location or Network Trust

The connector application 350 can always operate on the user device 300and used for traffic forwarding. Specifically, the connector application350 can be used to access different cloud services when the user device300 is on different networks. The cloud services can be via thecloud-based system 100, etc. Specifically, the connector application 350can automatically select a forwarding profile to a specific cloudservice based on a location of the user device 300. The forwardingprofile defines how the connector application 350 treats traffic withthe user device 300 in different network environments. The networkenvironments can include a trusted network and an untrusted network.There can be other network environments, such as on the trusted networkvia a VPN.

On a trusted network, the user device 300 is connected to a privatenetwork that is known to be trusted, e.g., belongs to an organization,such as the enterprise network 420. A VPN trusted network can be whenthe user device 300 is connected to the trusted network above via a VPNin full-tunnel mode. The VPN must be configured to capture all, and notjust some, of the user's traffic to the trusted network by installing adefault route in the routing table of the client device. Off the trustednetwork is when the user device 300 is connected to an untrustednetwork, e.g., a home network, a public network, etc.

FIG. 19 is a network diagram of a network 1000 illustrating the userdevice 300 with the application 350 automatically detecting a locationor network type and instantiating the proper traffic forwarding behaviorbased thereon. In this example, the network 1000 includes an untrustednetwork 1002, the cloud-based system 100, the Internet 104, and theenterprise network 420, which includes private resources 612.

The user device 300 moves between the networks 1002, etc., and theconnector application 350 allows seamless access to cloud services, suchas offered via the cloud-based system 100, or the private resources 612,inside the enterprise network. The untrusted network 1002 can be a homenetwork (e.g., Wi-Fi, cable modem, etc.), a public network, etc. It isuntrusted in the sense that an IT administrator associated with theenterprise network 420 does not have control of the network. Theenterprise network 420 is a trusted network, i.e., the IT administratorhas control over this network. On the trusted network, data can becommunicated transparently without concern for data leakage orcorruption as the trusted network has security, such as via firewallsand other perimeter defenses.

When a user connects to a network, either the untrusted network 1002,the enterprise network 420, the Internet 104, etc., the connectorapplication 350 checks to determine what type of network the user device300 is connected to for selecting a proper forwarding profile. Forexample, on the untrusted network 1002, the connector application 350can automatically install a tunnel 1004 to the cloud-based system 100,to the private resources 612, etc., or the connector application 350 cancause Internet traffic to access the Internet 104 via a proxy 1006, suchas the enforcement node 150. On the other hand, when the user device 300is on the enterprise network 420, the connector application 350 cancause traffic forwarding direct, to the private resources 612, to theInternet 104, etc.

There can be multiple forwarding profiles. For example, if there aremultiple locations with different network information, one can configuredifferent forwarding profiles so that the connector application 350 canrecognize the right network for different users and know how to respondupon detecting those networks.

FIG. 20 is a flowchart of a process 1050 for the use of DHCP forlocation information of a user device for automatic traffic forwarding,via the connector application 350. The process 1050 can be implementedas a method, as a non-transitory computer-readable medium storingcomputer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause a processorof the user device 300 to perform the steps, and/or via the user device300.

The process 1050 includes, responsive to joining a new network,performing a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) operation toobtain network configuration parameters (step 1052); receiving a DHCPmessage in response with the network configuration parameters (step1054); via an application 350 executed on the user device for servicediscovery and connectivity, analyzing data in the DHCP message todetermine one or more forwarding profiles on the new network, whereinthe one or more forwarding profiles are based on a location or trust ofthe new network (step 1056); and automatically installing the determinedone or more forwarding profiles (step 1058).

The process 1050 can also include forwarding traffic from one or moreapplications executed on the user device based on the one or moreforwarding profiles (step 1060). The process 1050 can also includeenforcing policy via a cloud service based on the location or trust ofthe new network (step 1062). The one or more forwarding profiles caninclude one of a tunnel, a connection to a proxy, and direct forwarding.

The data to determine the location or trust of the new network is in theDHCP message received from a DHCP server. As known in the art, the DHCPserver provides conventional information such as an IP address, leaseinformation, etc. The DHCP server can also provide a DNS server fordomain name queries. It is difficult to use the IP address or DNS serveras an indication of the location or trust. For example, the DNS serversmay be the same across different locations, the IP addresses mayoverlap, etc. That is, conventional information in the DHCP messagesfrom the DHCP server is inadequate to make an appropriate judgment ofthe location or trust of the new network.

In an embodiment, the process 1050 includes data in the DHCP message islocated in DHCP options. DHCP options are a section which can includevarious information, including vendor-specific information. For example,a predetermined value can be included in the DHCP options where thepredetermined value is indicative of a trusted network, and the absenceof the predetermined value is indicative of an untrusted network. Here,the DHCP server on a trusted network is appropriately configured withthe predetermined value, as are the user device 300 in its application350. The predetermined value can be any key-value pair that is evaluatedvia the application for a TRUE/FALSE.

The one or more forwarding profiles can include secure forwarding on theuntrusted network and unsecure forwarding on the trusted network. Secureforwarding can include tunnels, VPNs, proxy connections via a securecloud, etc.

In another embodiment, the data further includes a second predeterminedvalue indicative of another trusted network, and the one or moreforwarding profiles can include secure forwarding on the another trustednetwork, while there is unsecure tunnel on the trusted network. This,for example, can be used when a user from one office visits anotheroffice, or in various other use cases.

In a further embodiment, the location or trust of the new network can beused to determine policy, e.g., access gambling.com from an untrustednetwork but not from a trusted network. The location or trust can beused to determine DLP rules, sandboxing, etc.

Cloud Policies Based on Network Trust

The previous discussion herein included a trusted network and anuntrusted network. The present disclosure includes this as well asmultiple different trusted networks. That is, there can be an untrustednetwork and multiple trusted networks. Examples of an untrusted networkcan include a home network, public Wi-Fi hotspots, cellular networks,the Internet in general, etc. Examples of trusted networks can be theheadquarters 112 and the branch office 118, e.g., these could havedifferent levels or network trust rules. Various other examples arecontemplated.

As discussed herein, forwarding profiles define traffic forwardingbetween the user devices 300, the cloud-based system 100, the Internet104, the cloud applications 106, the applications 402, 404, etc. Thepresent disclosure includes the ability to have trusted networksseparate from forwarding profiles in order to reuse them for forwardingprofiles by just association instead of repetitive addition. Inaddition, this would give a many-to-many mapping of the trusted networksto forwarding profiles that works well for the geographically separatedlocations of an organization that would have multiple trusted networks.That is, the forwarding profile can be separate from the network trustrules.

With reference to the cloud-based system 100 in FIGS. 1 and 2, there arevarious user devices 300 associated with users 102, with the users 102including the devices 110, 116, or being located at the locations 112,114, 118, or at other locations. The forwarding profile defines howtraffic is forward between the user device 300, the cloud-based system100, and other networks (the Internet 104, the cloud applications 106,the applications 402, 406, etc.). In addition, networks are now given atrust levels, either one of a plurality of trust levels, and anuntrusted level. There are network trust rules for each of the trustlevels, and the network trust rules determine policies used by thecloud-based system 100, e.g., security, URL content filtering, DLP,CASB, etc. related policies.

An administrator can interact with the management system 120 to definenetwork trust. FIG. 21 is screenshots of UI screens forselecting/defining trusted networks. The management system 120 includesa database that can include a trusted networks table that can identify anetwork (such as by network name, location, DNS servers, company ID,etc.) as well as a trust level. The network can be identified by trustednetwork criteria including a DNS server, DNS search domains, hostnameand IP, and pre-defined trusted networks for selection. Specifically,the network location can be detected by criteria—DNS server, DNS searchdomains, hostname and IP, etc. In FIG. 21, an example network HQ SanJose is identified by a hostname and resolved IP, and a second examplenetwork America Center is identified by a DNS search domain.

Evaluation of the network can be performed by the connector application350 on the user device 300. The connection application can fetch of theDNS server list and search domains to compare with the trusted networkstable, to figure out whether the network is one of the trusted networksor an untrusted network. The trusted networks table can be in thecloud-based system 100, and the evaluation can be based on communicationbetween the user device 300 and a corresponding enforcement node 150. Awireless network, e.g., Wi-Fi Network, can be identified based on aService Set Identifier (SSID).

There can be an association between each network in the trusted networkstable and the forwarding profiles. The connection application 350 isalso configured to use the forwarding profiles to access the cloud-basedsystem 100, and the cloud-based system 100 is configured to use thenetwork trust rules to determine the applied policies.

FIG. 22 is a flowchart of a process 1100 for cloud policy enforcementbased on network trust. The process 1100 can be implemented as a method,as a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executableinstructions that, when executed, cause a processor to perform thesteps, via the user device 300, and/or via the cloud-based system 100.

The steps in the process 1100 include obtaining trusted network rulesfor a plurality of networks, wherein the trusted network rules includewhether a network is untrusted or one of a plurality of trusted networks(step 1102); obtaining policy configurations for each of the trustednetwork rules, wherein the policy configurations define configurationsfor a cloud-based system to use with a user device based on acorresponding network where the user device is connected (step 1104);communicating with the user device and determining which network of theplurality of network the user device is connected (step 1106); andapplying the configurations in the cloud-based system for the userdevice based on the network the user device is connected (step 1108).

The steps in the process 1100 can also include obtaining forwardingpolicies for each of the plurality of networks (step 1110); andproviding the forwarding policies to a connector application executed onthe user device (step 1112). The policy configurations for each of thetrusted network rules define the configurations in the cloud-basedsystem and the forwarding policies for each of the plurality of networksdefine how traffic is forwarded by the user device to the cloud-basedsystem. A same forwarding policy can be used for at least two of theplurality of networks.

The determining can be performed by the user device through detectingthe network via any of a Domain Name Server (DNS) configuration, DNSsearch domains, and hostname and Internet Protocol (IP) address. Theconfigurations can 4=include content filtering through the cloud-basedsystem. The configurations can include Data Loss Prevention (DLP)monitoring through the cloud-based system. The configurations caninclude Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) monitoring through thecloud-based system.

Client Forwarding Policies

In FIG. 6, and as described herein, a client forwarding policy includesrules that define how and when applications requests are forwarded inthe ZTNA application, such as between the users 102 with a user device300, the cloud-based system 100, the connectors 400, and theapplications 402, 404. As described herein, a client forwarding policydefines rules related to what is stored on the user device 300 and ruleswhen application requests (between the user device 300 and theapplications 402, 404) are forwarded from the application 350 to thecorresponding connectors 400 via the cloud-based system 100. That is,the client forwarding policy defines whether a particular user 102accesses any of the applications 402, 404 directly or via zero trustaccess through the cloud-based system 100. The client forwardingpolicies are configurations in the cloud-based system 100.

FIG. 23 is a screenshot of a client forwarding policy UI. Specifically,FIG. 23 illustrates the UI and associated steps for adding a new clientforwarding policy in ZPA which is an example of zero trust access.First, an add rule button is selected to add a new client forwardingpolicy rule. Second, a display all rules button is selected to showclient forwarding policy rules in a table. Third, an expand displayedrules button is select to expand all of the displayed rows in the tableto see more information about each policy rule. Fourth, it is possibleto filter the information that appears in the table. Fifth, the tableincludes a list of all client forwarding policy rules that wereconfigured. For each rule, the following is displayed:

Rule Order: The policy evaluation order number for the rule. Zero trustaccess (ZPA) applies policy rules based on the order they are listedhere. The rule order may be changed by clicking on the number andmanually entering in a new value.

Name: The name of the rule. When the row is expanded, the description isalso displayed here, if available.

Rule Action: Indicates if the rule will Bypass zero trust access (ZPA),Only Forward Allowed Applications, or Forward to Zero trust access(ZPA). When the row is expanded, it provides a visual representation ofthe Criteria (e.g., SAML attributes, application segments, trustednetworks, etc.) and Boolean logic used within the rule.

Sixth, there is a button to copy an existing client forwarding policyrule's criteria, and use it to create a new rule. Seventh, there is abutton to edit an existing client forwarding policy rule. Eighth, thereis a button to delete a client forwarding policy rule. Ninth, there is abutton to go to the Access Policy page, to add a new access policy ormanage existing policies. Tenth, there is a button to go to the TimeoutPolicy page, to add a new timeout policy or manage existing policies.

Thus, there can be multiple client forwarding policies that are appliedin the rule order. Each client forwarding policy includes a rule (bypasszero trust access, forward only allowed applications to zero trustaccess, and forward all application requests to zero trust access) andcriteria (application segments or segment groups), trusted networks, andSAML attributes. FIG. 24 is a screenshot of editing a particular clientforwarding policy. Generally, the client forwarding policies are used todetermine the access type (i.e., the rule—bypass zero trust access,forward only allowed applications to zero trust access, and forward allapplication requests to zero trust access) based on the criteria. Thatis, the rule is applied based on the criteria.

An application 402, 404 can include a fully qualified domain name(FQDN), local domain name, or IP address, which you define on a standardset of ports. Applications 402, 404 must be defined within anapplication segment which is a grouping of defined applications, basedupon access type or user privileges. Zero trust access features such asdouble encryption, health reporting, etc. are configured per applicationsegment. A segment group is a grouping of application segments allowingfor configuration of user access policies based on segment groups. Forexample, if there is a set of defined applications for users only fromthe “Sales” department to access, a segment group called “SalesApplications” can be created and apply to it all sales-relatedapplications. It is then possible to create an access policy using thatsegment group.

The client forwarding policy allows an admin to control whichapplication segment definitions get downloaded to the user device 300,and how the user device 300 behaves.

Again, there are three actions that can be applied to an applicationsegment, namely bypass zero trust access, forward only allowedapplications to zero trust access, and forward all application requeststo zero trust access. Bypass zero trust access allows an applicationsegment to be downloaded to the user device 300. The user device 300will bypass the cloud-based system 100 entirely for the application 402,404. For example, for an application segment of www.acme.net:80, the DNSwill resolve this, and the application 350 on the user device 300 willimplicitly bypass the DNS to the local DNS server, which will resolveagainst Internet DNS.

For forward all application requests to zero trust access, this allowsthe application segment to be downloaded to the user device 300. Theuser device 300 will forward the application to the cloud-based system100, where policy will be applied. For the application segment ofwww.acme.net:80, the user will DNS resolve this, the application 350will intercept the DNS request and resolve it to an address in thecloud-based system 100. The user device 300 would connect to IP addresson port 80 and traffic is forwarded to the cloud-based system 100 forpolicy to be applied.

The forward only allowed applications to zero trust access is where onlyallowed application segments are downloaded to the user device 300 forinterception. This is an access policy that is evaluated for theapplication segments. For an application segment of www.acme.net:80,user mary@acme.net is denied access in the access policy, and userbob@acme.net is allowed access in the access policy. When usermary@acme.net requests the application 402, 404 in the applicationsegment, they will not have a definition for the application, so theuser device 300 would attempt to “go direct.” When user bob@acme.netrequests the application, the application 350 will intercept the DNSrequest and resolve it to an address in the cloud-based system 100. Theuser device 300 for user bob@acme.net would connect to the IP address onport 80 and traffic is forwarded to the cloud-based system 100 for zerotrust access policy to be applied.

However, there are important considerations to this “Only ForwardAllowed Applications” to plan in the application segment policy. In theabove example user mary@acme.net is denied access to the application, soit does not download the application segment. However, if there is awildcard application segment (*.acme.net) which is defined for the userto download—when the user attempts to access www.acme.net:80, this would“match” against the *.acme.net wildcard discovery application segment.The traffic would then be intercepted and forwarded to the cloud-basedsystem 100, where policy would apply and deny access to the application.If the expectation is for this application to “bypass,” then this wouldnot be the outcome.

DNS SRV records—similar to above, however, DNS SRV records returnpointers to services (e.g. _ldap._tcp.acme.net returns a pointer todomain-controller.acme.net:389). DNS would still match the wildcarddiscovery and return the answer to the user, in some cases (e.g., MSTeams/Skype uses _sip._tls.acme.net.) you might explicitly want this tobypass and resolve to the internet.

Client Forwarding Policy Use Cases

In a first use case, there is a requirement that some zero trustapplications should be tunneled (tunnel as described herein meansforwarded through the cloud-based system 100 for zero trust access) whenon the trusted network, but NOT tunneled when off. This is somewhat theopposite of the typical zero trust access policy, i.e., tunnel when onan untrusted network and no tunnel when on a trusted network. However,the majority of the zero trust applications still need to be tunneledwhen off a trusted network. Conventionally, this poses a problem,because the administrator needs to choose a binary ON/OFF trustednetwork. The client forwarding policy enables the ability to define arule that includes some of the zero trust applications to tunnel whileon a trusted network and not to tunnel while on an untrusted network.

In a second use case, a tenant has a full zero trust model. They wantusers to go through the cloud-based system 100 always when on or offtrusted networks. However, they have one small management networksegment that should only be accessed when the user is on-premises, i.e.,on a specific trusted network. This poses a problem because thecloud-based system 100 is enabled for on and off trusted networks,meaning that management segment is always available. The clientforwarding policy enables the ability to set the access policy for thissmall management network segment that includes zero trust access when ona specific trusted network and no access otherwise.

In a third use case, a tenant has employees that work as contractors formultiple other companies. They need to be able to tunnel in some ofthese, but not all of these. Today they need to define all of theseother company sites as trusted networks or off trusted networks, whichmeans hundreds of trusted network criteria matches are needed. Theadministrator could gradually fingerprint all of the other companynetworks and then define policies for tunneling or not tunneling foreach of these.

In a fourth use case, a tenant performs a lot of Merger & Acquisition(M&A) activities and sometimes these involved companies that are alreadycustomers of the cloud-based system 100. This means that Company A hasapplications A, B, C, and Company B has applications X, Y, Z. They needfor Company A users to tunnel to applications X, Y, Z when they are atCompany A's network, but not tunnel when they are at Company B's network(where the applications exist), and the reverse of this is needed too.Using the client forwarding policy, Company A can define Company B'snetwork as a trusted network, and then instruct the rule to tunnel ornot tunnel.

In a fifth use case, an airline has specific hidden wireless networksfor their pilots and flight crew. The network configuration changesfrequently, so it is not easy to flag these as trusted networks usingthe current criteria. Administrators want to be able to define thesespecific wireless networks as trusted networks, so that when the pilotsare in the air, they can configure the application 350 to tunnel orbypass that traffic.

In a sixth use case, a tenant has some user groups that they want tolimit the visibility of applications to. Although when all of theapplications are downloaded to devices today and users are limited byaccess due to access policy, the visibility of these applications is theconcern. For this particular group of users, the application 350 shouldonly download the applications that the administrator defines. Ascenario where this would be useful is the contractor scenario, wherethey hire an external contractor to come and work on a particularserver. There is no need to expose ALL of the applications to thiscontractor, in fact its desired that their application 350 is only awareof certain apps. While this behavior is important, the current logic(sending all apps) is desired also for troubleshooting. Customers wantthe flexibility to choose whether all apps are sent or just a selectlist.

Client Forwarding Policy Process

FIG. 25 is a flowchart of a client forwarding policy process 1200. Theclient forwarding policy process 1200 can be implemented as a method, asa non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executableinstructions that, when executed, cause a processor to perform thesteps, and/or via the cloud-based system 100. Specifically, the clientforwarding policy process 1200 can be implemented by an IT administratorconnected to the management system 120. The client forwarding policyprocess 1200 defines client forwarding policies that are in turn used todetermine what is distributed to the users 102 and their user devices300 for accessing the applications 402, 404 via the cloud-based system100 or bypassing the cloud-based system 100, based on the criteria,e.g., on or off a trusted network, on or off a specific network, etc.

The client forwarding policy process 1200 includes providing a userinterface to an administrator associated with a tenant of a cloud-basedsystem, wherein the tenant has a plurality of users each having anassociated user device (step 1202); receiving a plurality of clientforwarding policies for the plurality of users, wherein each clientforwarding policy of the client forwarding policies define rules relatedto how application requests from the plurality of users are forwardedfor zero trust access (step 1204); and providing the rules tocorresponding user devices of the plurality of users (step 1206).

The cloud-based system is configured to perform zero trust accessbetween the plurality of users and a plurality of applicationsassociated with the application requests. Each client forwarding policyspecifies whether an application request bypasses the cloud-basedsystem, is forwarded to the cloud-based system only when the applicationrequest is allowed for a user, and is forwarded to the cloud-basedsystem. Each client forwarding policy specifies criteria for how theapplication requests are forwarded. Each client forwarding policyspecifies criteria for how the application requests are forwarded,wherein the criteria include whether or not a user device is on atrusted network or not.

The client forwarding policy process 1200 can further include receivinga plurality of client forwarding policies for a same application withdifferent criteria specifying how the application requests are forwardedwith the plurality of client forwarding policies specified in a policyevaluation order (step 1208). The plurality of client forwardingpolicies can include accessing the same application through thecloud-based system when on a first network type and accessing the sameapplication direct on a second network type, wherein the network typesinclude any of a trusted network, an untrusted network, and aspecifically defined network. The plurality of client forwardingpolicies can include accessing the same application through thecloud-based system when on a trusted network, and to prevent accessingthe same application in all other situations.

It will be appreciated that some embodiments described herein mayinclude one or more generic or specialized processors (“one or moreprocessors”) such as microprocessors; Central Processing Units (CPUs);Digital Signal Processors (DSPs): customized processors such as NetworkProcessors (NPs) or Network Processing Units (NPUs), Graphics ProcessingUnits (GPUs), or the like; Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs); andthe like along with unique stored program instructions (including bothsoftware and firmware) for control thereof to implement, in conjunctionwith certain non-processor circuits, some, most, or all of the functionsof the methods and/or systems described herein. Alternatively, some orall functions may be implemented by a state machine that has no storedprogram instructions, or in one or more Application-Specific IntegratedCircuits (ASICs), in which each function or some combinations of certainof the functions are implemented as custom logic or circuitry. Ofcourse, a combination of the aforementioned approaches may be used. Forsome of the embodiments described herein, a corresponding device inhardware and optionally with software, firmware, and a combinationthereof can be referred to as “circuitry configured or adapted to,”“logic configured or adapted to,” etc. perform a set of operations,steps, methods, processes, algorithms, functions, techniques, etc. ondigital and/or analog signals as described herein for the variousembodiments.

Moreover, some embodiments may include a non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium having computer-readable code storedthereon for programming a computer, server, appliance, device,processor, circuit, etc. each of which may include a processor toperform functions as described and claimed herein. Examples of suchcomputer-readable storage mediums include, but are not limited to, ahard disk, an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, aRead-Only Memory (ROM), a Programmable Read-Only Memory (PROM), anErasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EPROM), an Electrically ErasableProgrammable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM), Flash memory, and the like. Whenstored in the non-transitory computer-readable medium, software caninclude instructions executable by a processor or device (e.g., any typeof programmable circuitry or logic) that, in response to such execution,cause a processor or the device to perform a set of operations, steps,methods, processes, algorithms, functions, techniques, etc. as describedherein for the various embodiments.

Although the present disclosure has been illustrated and describedherein with reference to preferred embodiments and specific examplesthereof, it will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in theart that other embodiments and examples may perform similar functionsand/or achieve like results. All such equivalent embodiments andexamples are within the spirit and scope of the present disclosure, arecontemplated thereby, and are intended to be covered by the followingclaims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A non-transitory computer-readable storage mediumhaving computer-readable code stored thereon for programming a server toperform steps of: providing a user interface to an administratorassociated with a tenant of a cloud-based system, wherein the tenant hasa plurality of users each having an associated user device; receiving aplurality of client forwarding policies for the plurality of users,wherein each client forwarding policy of the client forwarding policiesdefine rules related to how application requests from the plurality ofusers are forwarded for zero trust access; and providing the rules tocorresponding user devices of the plurality of users.
 2. Thenon-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein thecloud-based system is configured to perform zero trust access betweenthe plurality of users and a plurality of applications associated withthe application requests.
 3. The non-transitory computer-readablestorage medium of claim 1, wherein each client forwarding policyspecifies whether an application request bypasses the cloud-basedsystem, is forwarded to the cloud-based system only when the applicationrequest is allowed for a user, and is forwarded to the cloud-basedsystem.
 4. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim3, wherein each client forwarding policy specifies criteria for how theapplication requests are forwarded.
 5. The non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein each clientforwarding policy specifies criteria for how the application requestsare forwarded, wherein the criteria include whether or not a user deviceis on a trusted network or not.
 6. The non-transitory computer-readablestorage medium of claim 1, wherein the steps include receiving aplurality of client forwarding policies for a same application withdifferent criteria specifying how the application requests are forwardedwith the plurality of client forwarding policies specified in a policyevaluation order.
 7. The non-transitory computer-readable storage mediumof claim 6, wherein the plurality of client forwarding policies includeaccessing the same application through the cloud-based system when on afirst network type and accessing the same application direct on a secondnetwork type, wherein the network types include any of a trustednetwork, an untrusted network, and a specifically defined network. 8.The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 6, whereinthe plurality of client forwarding policies include accessing the sameapplication through the cloud-based system when on a trusted network,and to prevent accessing the same application in all other situations.9. A method comprising: providing a user interface to an administratorassociated with a tenant of a cloud-based system, wherein the tenant hasa plurality of users each having an associated user device; receiving aplurality of client forwarding policies for the plurality of users,wherein each client forwarding policy of the client forwarding policiesdefine rules related to how application requests from the plurality ofusers are forwarded for zero trust access; and providing the rules tocorresponding user devices of the plurality of users.
 10. The method ofclaim 9, wherein the cloud-based system is configured to perform zerotrust access between the plurality of users and a plurality ofapplications associated with the application requests.
 11. The method ofclaim 9, wherein each client forwarding policy specifies whether anapplication request bypasses the cloud-based system, is forwarded to thecloud-based system only when the application request is allowed for auser, and is forwarded to the cloud-based system.
 12. The method ofclaim 11, wherein each client forwarding policy specifies criteria forhow the application requests are forwarded.
 13. The method of claim 9,wherein each client forwarding policy specifies criteria for how theapplication requests are forwarded, wherein the criteria include whetheror not a user device is on a trusted network or not.
 14. The method ofclaim 9, further comprising receiving a plurality of client forwardingpolicies for a same application with different criteria specifying howthe application requests are forwarded with the plurality of clientforwarding policies specified in a policy evaluation order.
 15. Themethod of claim 14, wherein the plurality of client forwarding policiesinclude accessing the same application through the cloud-based systemwhen on a first network type and accessing the same application directon a second network type, wherein the network types include any of atrusted network, an untrusted network, and a specifically definednetwork.
 16. The method of claim 14, wherein the plurality of clientforwarding policies include accessing the same application through thecloud-based system when on a trusted network, and to prevent accessingthe same application in all other situations.
 17. A server comprising:one or more processors; and memory storing instructions that, whenexecuted, cause the one or more processors to provide a user interfaceto an administrator associated with a tenant of a cloud-based system,wherein the tenant has a plurality of users each having an associateduser device; receive a plurality of client forwarding policies for theplurality of users, wherein each client forwarding policy of the clientforwarding policies define rules related to how application requestsfrom the plurality of users are forwarded for zero trust access; andprovide the rules to corresponding user devices of the plurality ofusers.
 18. The server of claim 17, wherein the cloud-based system isconfigured to perform zero trust access between the plurality of usersand a plurality of applications associated with the applicationrequests.
 19. The server of claim 17, wherein each client forwardingpolicy specifies whether an application request bypasses the cloud-basedsystem, is forwarded to the cloud-based system only when the applicationrequest is allowed for a user, and is forwarded to the cloud-basedsystem.
 20. The server of claim 17, wherein each client forwardingpolicy specifies criteria for how the application requests areforwarded, wherein the criteria include whether or not a user device ison a trusted network or not.